The Write-Ups – Self Titled

The Write-Ups, hailing from Flint, Michigan describe themselves as a ‘politically-driven, dirty ska band’ and to be fair, the album kicks off keeping that promise.

‘Poisoned Children’ takes a direct swipe at Michigan State officials involved in the Flint Water Crisis of 2014 onwards (where public water supplies were contaminated and caused deaths and illness in the general public), and it pulls no punches in it’s vitriol. In addition to spitting fury, it’s a great Ska tune and carries the social commentary reminiscent of the Two-Tone era – good stuff!

The album continues this social commentary theme pretty much throughout…the police, addiction, suicide, mental health, life, love and….an instrumental entitled ’95 Honda Prelude’.

The story goes that it was originally called simply ‘Prelude’ as a gig intro tune to the first ‘real’ song, but the name evolved as a bit of a joke about one of the bands dads buying said car as a bit of a mid life crisis purchase! As a mid-lifed lover of Japanese cars, I kind of relate! And it sets up the next track ‘Proper Pursuits’ perfectly.

There’s some cracking tracks on this 9 track offering – stand outs for me are ‘Poisoned Children’ for it’s pure raw energy and rage and then three that come hard and fast one after the other ‘Proper Pursuits’, ‘Going Back Home’ and ‘Gonna Leave Me’…upbeat ska that although clearly address some dark themes, somehow manages to make you feel happy! Fuckin love it!

I really enjoyed this album and it doesn’t have a weak track on it. The ‘sound’ is difficult to pigeonhole (which isn’t a bad thing!) but if you took a pinch of Catbite, a touch of Bosstones and added a good sprinkle of Two-Tone, you wouldn’t be too far off!

• Pauly

Available on all the usual streaming sites, you can also buy the digital album on their bandcamp…link below!

The Write-Ups on Facebook
The Write-Ups on Instagram
The Write-Ups Bandcamp site